Virtual Reality Bomb Squad Game Releases For Gear VR

Isolation is a major concern about the coming push for virtual reality gaming, that there's an inherently anti-social aspect to donning a visor, separating players from other people. In a time when when gaming increasingly pushes toward sharing our experiences with others, VR runs counter to that momentum.

It doesn't have to be that way, as demonstrated by Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, which released for the Samsung Gear VR this week. In this cooperative multiplayer game, one player wears a headset and is presented with a ticking bomb while the remaining players provide instructions on how to defuse it, using the bomb's instruction manual. The bomb designs are randomly selected, meaning the visor-wearing player must describe what they see from their view so that the other players can determine the correct actions to take.

Originally designed as part of the 2014 Global Game Jam, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes was first distributed as a free game for use with the Oculus Rift Development Kit hardware. The Gear VR release represents the first retail launch of the game, which is also planned to be available in future for the consumer version of Oculus Rift and Sony's Morpheus headset.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is available now from the Gear VR store for $9.99.